


glitter gold

by PaladinPrince, sassycatpants



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Dragons, F/M, M/M, and sephiroth is not impressed, angeal is not, genesis is kind of sassy, in which cloud tramples all over the basic laws of reality but it wasn't his fault this time, small dash of kingdom hearts, somewhat dubious consent due to the influence of dragons on their riders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 20:05:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2634518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaladinPrince/pseuds/PaladinPrince, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassycatpants/pseuds/sassycatpants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Sephiroth turned his attention back to the dragon with another low hum. “Well, this presents a bit of a problem, you realize. Golds do not, as a rule, choose men as their riders. We do not know why, but we </em>know <em>this to be true. And yet, she chose you. Why is that, Cloud?”</em></p><p>Some stories are carved into the stars themselves, an ending that can not be changed. Cloud was always meant to be a hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	glitter gold

**Author's Note:**

> So I had an idea and Paladin encouraged me. And then we did the thing together, and so now here we stand.
> 
> Keito is a beloved tiny puppy and did the beta work for us, which is nice because a polished version is the best version and there were some really awkward bits that readers should be glad were smoothed away hahaha.
> 
> Due to the fusion of FF7/Pern canons, a lot of Pern canon will be either dropped, rewritten or twisted entirely to incorporate FF7 canon. Basically, if it's wrong or against Pern canon, there's a reason for it even if we never explain said reason. Setting wise, Pern has been replaced with Gaia and the Weyrs renamed as appropriate. We've also dropped the naming convention where male riders shorten their names with an apostrophe after they Impress. We do hold true with the rule that dragon names end in _th_ however, though that does mean that some characters who appear as dragons had to have their names tweaked around to fit.
> 
> There will probably also be a lot of headcanon things incorporated, and this story takes place during the _long_ stretch of centuries between Dragonsdawn and Dragonsflight. It definitely takes place centuries before Dragonsflight (and possibly negates the events of that timeline onward in the end anyway), so pretty much everything from that period can be ignored.
> 
> We're also aware that the canon series gives us a pretty good view of how Weyr culture works, especially in regards to relationships and sex, but cultures also evolve over time as needs and beliefs change, so there may or may not be a few inaccuracies and differences. These can be shoved under the label of 'evolving cultures' and handwaved away as something that dropped out of use/continued on but in a modified fashion if they don't match the canon. (Chances are that if it doesn't match canon from either series, it's because one or both authors had a headcanon about that particular item and both agreed to use it.)

“Cloud!” Aerith called, pausing as she spotted her blond friend. “What in the world are you _doing_? The Impressio’s about to start!”

Said blond looked over almost lazily as he was called. “Come on Aerith, what’s the big hurry? You and I both know that I’m not likely to be picked. I haven’t been picked by a dragon yet. Though, I’m content just to be here among friends...” He really wasn’t bothered all that much by the situation, despite his failure to impress for three years.

Aerith scoffed in response to that, grabbing his wrist to pull him along. “Don’t be ridiculous--you’re a candidate and you have to be on the sands. They sent me to find you, you know. Zack was pretty anxious you were going to miss it!”

Cloud just blinked. “Zack was? I don’t know him that well though; we never talk except when he comes by to pick you up… why would he be anxious about me missing it?” He knew better than to argue though, when she got like this there was no point trying to convince her otherwise. Besides, he was pretty sure that if he wanted to keep his wrist and the hand attached to it, it’d be safer to just let her drag him along.

“Don’t be silly, he likes you.” She shot him a grin over her shoulder as they entered the area covered by sand. “And he really wants you to be a dragon rider, so stop stalling and _go_.” She gave him a gentle shove forward. The sands were warm as usual, though they’d since bypassed ‘warm’ and transitioned straight into ‘burning hot’ as a result of the eggs in the center of the room.

The young male practically tripped as she pushed him out onto the sands, before quickly regaining his footing with another good natured sigh. He gave her a smile before moving across the sands quickly to wait with the other excited candidates. They were actually a lot more excited about this than he was right now, but the feeling was rather contagious as he rested on the sands; he was rather used to both the heat of the sands and the events, so much so that he no longer noticed the radiating heat.

The first of the eggs began to move, rocking back and forth until finally a loud crack sounded through the air. Shortly after, the sound repeated from other eggs, until it was nearly an echo as the first egg finally split open before the rest followed. A moment later, the room sounded with the cries of baby dragons, all tumbling over each other in their haste to reach their riders. None of them came for Cloud, as he’d expected.

At this point, Cloud was just happy to watch all the different dragons and riders get paired off. It was always nice to see and he didn’t have to worry about trying to coax any of the dragons to him, not the way the others were doing. It was a lot more peaceful that way. However, he blinked and turned when he thought he heard the sound of the queen egg cracking. He always loved to see a queen or bronze hatch, the way the colors of their hide seemed to shine was always interesting. Unfortunately, before he could see the queen hatch, a bronze hatched near him and caught his attention.

No one else seemed to be paying attention to the bronze, too busy watching the queen who had thrown herself out of her egg with a loud cry before barreling through the female candidates. All of them were ignored, a few unlucky girls half trampled as she tore past them, before skidding to a stop by Cloud’s side. It wasn’t long at all before the commotion caught Cloud’s attention and he was turning to look back toward the queen egg. Why was there such a loud ruckus…? His eyes widened when the golden shape barreled through girls and toward him and the other boys. Cloud immediately pulled back in surprise, falling backward and leaning on his hands to keep off his back. “W-What in the..?” he blurted, as the dragon caught his eyes.

 _I’m hungry_ , a voice informed him after a moment. The queen who’d spoken hovered over Cloud, before dropping to the sand and placing her face into his lap. _When do I get to eat?_

Cloud’s bewildered look seemed to speak volumes. However, his heart practically stopped at the new voice in his head. He soon found himself relaxing as the wonder of the situation, along with the newfound connection, washed over him as he gently placed a hand to her muzzle. “... Soon.” He answered her before carefully shifting. “.. Let’s go get you something to eat now... alright...?” He’d make the connection that he was hearing a queen dragon’s voice later, after the hungry feeling the two of them now seemingly sharing had passed.

The gold dragon gave a pleased purr in response to that, and then the whispering started. He’d impressed a queen. A _boy_ had impressed a queen, and that was unheard of. Zack was the first one onto the sands, crouching down beside Cloud and offering him a hand up.

“Cloud?”

Cloud soon heard the whispering, and was beginning to feel a bit self conscious until he realized there was someone coming. He looked up as his name was called and couldn’t help but feel more at ease as he accepted the hand up. “Well… looks like I managed it like you hoped.” He gave a small smile as he said it, but he was still clearly worried as he glanced towards some of the people whispering about him. This would be interesting.

“Do you… understand what you did?” Zack replied, trying to smile. He managed, but it was tinged with worry of his own. “Cloud, you impressed a _gold_.”

Cloud didn’t need to know Zack well to see the worry that was etched into that gaze. He swallowed a bit and glanced down at the young dragon at his side. He could feel her getting impatient now before his eyes turned up to Zack again. “... Don’t know how I did it… but right now I’m going to concentrate on taking care of her. She chose me, so... I’m going to make the best of it.” He hoped it at least sounded mature. “If people can’t accept that, well… I guess all they're doing is pushing away what may be their last gold dragon for a while.. right..?”

Zack snorted before he shook his head. “Balls of steel,” he muttered, before he motioned with a hand. “C’mon, this way. Gotta feed the little terror.” The gold hissed at Zack before pressing against Cloud’s legs.

 _Leannth_ , she insisted. _I’m Leannth. My rider may call me Le._

Cloud shook his head. He didn’t know if it was “balls of steel,” as Zack put it; however, before he could say anything Zack was motioning him toward where the food was kept. He definitely didn’t want her going hungry, but he was interrupted by a hissing sound and a head pressing against his legs which almost pushed him over. “Woah! Easy.. don’t knock me over, okay?” He laughed a bit, forgetting momentarily in the excitement of the moment that he was going to have to deal with a lot of odd looks as he kneeled down to run his hand along the top of her head. “Well, it’s nice to meet you Le. I’m Cloud.” He figured it was only polite to say so, even if she probably already knew. It was only after that did he begin to lead and help her toward where the food was waiting.

 _Of course_ , she replied primly. _I already knew that. You’re my rider, you know. I know these things._

The blond burst into chuckles at that, his eyes twinkling a bit. “Oh. Really? Quite a smug little thing aren’t you?” He stated that jokingly, scratching under her chin. “Come on now. I thought you said you were hungry?” His eyes were a lot warmer than they’d been in a long time.

 _Food_ , she agreed, hopping along behind him as her eyes swirled. Zack snorted softly, stepping into the feeding room only to stop as the room burst into noise. From the sounds of it, not everyone was pleased with her choice.

 _He’s mine!_ She snarled as soon as she understood what was going on. _Mine, don’t touch!_

Cloud winced a bit at the sudden noise, especially the sounds of disagreement. It’s not like it was any of their business though… why should it bother them since it was Le’s choice..? Though he had expected that sort of backlash too.

What the blond _hadn’t_ expected was Le’s reaction. His eyes widened as he glanced down to her, and he immediately was kneeling down at her side and scratching her eye ridge gently, a place he knew dragons enjoyed having scratched. “Easy, Le.. easy. They’re not going to try anything.. I promise, okay? Let’s just get you your food…” It was then that he gave all of them a look that would kill at least half of them if looks could actually kill. They’d upset his dragon. Even if it was because of the fact his dragon was a queen, they had no right!

She growled before calming as he scratched her pleasantly. Her eyes swirled again, though this time the colors were not happy. _He’s mine_ , she repeated insistently, and Zack held up his hands.

“No one’s taking your rider, sweetheart, calm down. Food’s right here, okay?”

Even Cloud tried to calmly lead her over to where it was. “Come on now.. what’ll we do if you’re so insistent on no-one taking me away that by the time we get there all the food’s gone, huh..? That wouldn’t do, right..?”

Le hurriedly followed, huffing at him before she pounced on the offered food. As she ate, the room went silent and even Zack looked relieved.

“Seph!”

Cloud stayed beside her, having a feeling that if he even attempted to move too far away from her right now it would just result in her chasing after him. But at mention of Zack’s nickname for Sephiroth he actually froze a bit, glancing over worriedly. Was Sephiroth really in here instead of with the other hatchlings and riders…?? Oh boy…

Sephiroth strode directly toward Cloud and Le, pausing long enough to nod at Zack before he peered down at the little golden dragon.

“So this is our future queen, then?” He hummed, his eyes flickering to Cloud and studying him intently. “Hmm. And her… Rider.”

The blond could almost _feel_ the way Sephiroth likely disapproved of him being her rider. He found himself sinking down a bit, and he looked over to Le again to calm down. He didn’t need her picking up on emotions like that right now, not when she was finally calm again. Looking at her seemed to calm him anyways. He didn’t think that Sephiroth was expecting an answer from him as he watched her, so he didn’t speak.

Sephiroth turned his attention back to the dragon with another low hum. “Well, this presents a bit of a problem, you realize. Golds do not, as a rule, choose men as their riders. We do not know why, but we _know_ this to be true. And yet, she chose you. Why is that, Cloud?”

Cloud was silent for a bit, but when the question was posed to him he looked up again and brought his attention to Sephiroth. “... I can’t say I know, sir. I really don’t. I don’t understand what’s going through her mind.. though I kind of wish I knew the answer myself.” Maybe then things would actually make more sense.

“So you do not know why she chose you.” It wasn’t a question, and Sephiroth sighed after a long moment of silence. “Regardless of the… oddity of the situation, and the amount of trouble it will no doubt cause, you are now the rider of a queen. The question now is what to do? You will obviously have to be taught to care for your dragon alongside the other new riders, but there are some Weyrwoman duties that fall to the queen’s rider; the trouble here is that traditionally they were a woman’s duty. All preparations for the queen and her rider were made under the assumption that she would choose from among the girls, and they were then carried out appropriately.”

The man turned away to pace for a moment. “You realize that you will never fly against Thread, correct? A queen can not chew fire rocks, not if she’s to breed, and as your gold--may I have her name?”

“Leannth,” Cloud provided quietly.

“Leannth, yes, thank you--as I was saying, Leannth is the only gold aside from Tifa’s.” Sephiroth stopped and faced Cloud again. “For many years, we have only had a single breeding gold at any one time. Now we have two, once Leannth is old enough for her own mating flights. We can not risk losing either of them, when there are no other Weyrs to make up for the disaster that losing the only two dragons capable of breeding would be.”

The fact that dragons would, as a species, become extinct if both queens died was very clear to all assembled.

Cloud simply nodded as he listened. “I understand, Sir… as for the Weyrwoman duties… that should be no problem. So long as they aren’t something that would be awkward for me to do being a male, I’ll perform them just the same.” A lot of people said he looked feminine enough as it was after all. It wouldn’t change in his mind, and if he wasn’t able to fly against Thread anyways he may as well do something to help out. So long as it didn’t include something like helping girls with their times of the month or something, he didn’t see why he couldn’t do what a normal Weyrwoman would do.

“You’ll begin work with Tifa in the morning. She will be your teacher until Leannth is old enough to fly at least. We’ll go from there.” Sephiroth turned to Zack, giving him a look.

“You can help him with learning how to care for her.”

Cloud nodded then. “Yes Sir.” The blond really didn’t want to anger the Weyrleader. He’d heard of the man’s reputation after all. His eyes looked over to Zack when Sephiroth turned to him and he found himself relaxing slightly. At least Zack, who seemed to not mind his presence, would be the one helping him with Le.

Zack grinned, amused for a second before he straightened. “Sir yes sir,” he replied cheekily, before giving a half assed salute. “I’ll teach him, yeah. We can start today.”

With a sharp nod, Sephiroth strode out of the room.

Once the silver haired man was gone, the young blond felt a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding escape his lips before he turned to Le again. Really, this was all because she’d chosen him over one of the girls… but he found he was still rather happy that she’d picked him to be her rider. He’d thought he’d never find a dragon partner after all.

 


End file.
